


Urgency

by FireOpal (Sandel)



Series: A Triptych of Possible Beginnings [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, Getting Together, M/M, Quidditch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 07:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7351192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandel/pseuds/FireOpal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>Percy and Oliver meet on the Quidditch Pitch on a stormy evening in late March, 1994.</p>
  <p>---</p>
  <p>Written for MuggleMaybe's <span class="u">Happy & Gay Challenge</span> <i>and</i> Rumpelstiltskin's <span class="u">Companion Piece Challenge</span> over at hpfanfictalk.com, <i>and</i> for Sam's (Dojh167's) birthday! <3</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	Urgency

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dojh167](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dojh167/gifts).



>   
>   
> Banner by TreacleTart at The Dark Arts forums.  
> \---
> 
> Oh my sammiest of Sams! Happy Birthday! <3
> 
> (More than a month late… but never mind that!)
> 
> When I saw your Percy/Oliver challenge (and especially when I saw that the deadline was your birthday) I really, really wanted to sign up, but I knew I wouldn’t have any time to get a story in before the deadline. But I resolved to get something written once I had the time, and now I have!
> 
> I had never written Percy/Oliver before this, never really seen the appeal even (though I have at least one Percy/Oliver on my AO3 ‘Marked for Later’ list…), but what are challenges for if not challenging you? 
> 
> And once I started thinking about the ship, I could definitely see the appeal. When I finally started working on this, I actually had _too many_ ideas. I knew I wanted to write _this_ story, but another idea kept butting in, wanting to be written. Then I found Rumpel’s Companion Piece Challenge, and though, why don’t I write both? The challenge demanded three stories though, and that’s how you ended up with three birthday gifts from me this year. I hope that makes up for them being so late! : )
> 
> All the best, and lots of love,  
> /Kapa

The Quidditch Pitch might not be where you expect to find Percy Weasley on a windy evening in late March, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He can’t study in peace in the Prefects’ Study Room anymore (for that’s where Penny is, and these days Penny means _not peace_ ), the Gryffindor common room is too noisy, and Madam Pince threw everyone out of the Library.

Thus, wind whipping at his hair and the hem of his robes, Percy makes his way onto the Gryffindor stands. He spreads his notes around him, mumbling a quick _Careventis_ so they won’t blow away, and breathes in peace, quiet, and the smell of a storm brewing. No matter – he can protect himself from the elements.

With his nose sunk in the November, 1986 issue of Transfiguration Today, he almost doesn’t notice the small figure making its way onto the Pitch in the darkness.

* * *

Oliver tries to study, he does, but the wind is howling around Gryffindor Tower, and he hasn’t mastered the Shimizu Storm Save yet. He can’t let Gryffindor lose the final because he didn’t practise that save enough. Winning the Cup is a ticket to the tryouts for the League teams, and this year is his last chance. He can study for his three perfunctory N.E.W.T.s some other day.

So, with his trusty Cleensweep Seven over his shoulder, Oliver walks out on the field. Then: a flash of red in the stands. Oliver freezes; Weasley red has set him on high alert ever since his childish first-year crush on Charles Weasley, star seeker. Nowadays it has more to do with watching out for the twins. (And _nothing_ to do with Percy Weasley, destined for a shining Ministry career that’ll sweep him even further out of Oliver’s reach than he already is.)

* * *

Two pairs of eyes meet across the Quidditch Pitch, darkness and empty air stretching out around them, between them. Percy rises from his seat in the stands, parchment and books falling everywhere around him. Oliver mounts his broom, magic or magnetism drawing him towards Percy.

Then they stand face to face, the Head Boy and the Quidditch Captain. The weirdoes, the obsessives, the leftovers. The other four boys in their year go everywhere together, do everything together. And then there’s Percy and Oliver, each off chasing his own goal. (Yet it’s only Percy who’s followed by whispers that his ambition should have made him a Slytherin.) They could have had each other, if the things that drives them both forward didn’t also pull them apart. But there _is_ a bond there, and when two things bound to each other are pulled apart, they’ll snap back hard.

This is the snap.

* * *

They don’t crash into each other mouth first (though the idea to do so crosses both their minds). No, they just stand there, exchanging awkward words.

“I didn’t expect to find you here.”

“Well, I’m just… studying.”

“I should have known.”

As they speak, seven years of things unspoken hang in the air between them. Stolen glances, half-thought thoughts, the knowledge that when it really matters, the other will have their back… Percy covers for Oliver in class, Oliver stands up for Percy against their House mates. They’ve both thrown hexes at Slytherins for each other, though Percy would never admit it.

Then the air around them surges with electricity, and a bolt of lightning crosses the sky. In its flash of light each is blinded by the other, and _now_ they reach for each other, now their mouths meet. _Finally_.

And then the rain comes, like the sky falling.

* * *

When they have managed to cover all of Percy’s things in water-repellent charms, Oliver simply says:

“Come fly with me.”

Fred and George have told Oliver that Percy has to be coaxed into playing Quidditch at the Burrow with his brothers, and yet now he comes happily, willingly. Oliver gets him an old school broom to fly on, and a training Quaffle.

Then they’re in the air together, speeding around the goal posts, laughing and throwing their arms out to welcome the rain that’s soaking them to their skins.

Percy, tall and lean, has a good build to play Chaser, only lacking a few muscles. He’s always been a decent flier, too, and tonight, somehow, in the rain and the wind and the darkness, he flies like a god.

And when Percy throws for goal, Oliver gets the Shimizu Storm Save perfectly right for the first time in his life.

* * *

Percy ends up late to Patrol duty; unforgivable on any night, and doubly so this year. But McGonagall’s look when he finally shows up holds more surprise than anger, and Sirius Black doesn’t break in this night either.

Instead Percy walks alone in darkened corridors for hours, worrying. He worries about what this new _thing_ between him and Oliver means, whether it’ll get in the way of his studying, what Penny will think, what his brothers will think, what the world will think. He’s half ready to pull out already, stop this disaster-in-the-making before it begins, pretend that tonight didn’t happen.

But when he steals into his dormitory late that night to finally get some sleep, Percy can’t help stopping by the foot of Oliver’s bed to listen to his gentle snoring, and he can’t help smiling. And he knows that wherever Oliver takes him, he will go.

Happily, willingly.


End file.
